Writing to Congress

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Many of us are angry and despairing at the political landscape, especially with the recent unprecedented threats to democracy itself in the United States.

Let's pool our brains and amplify our influence! Letters and phone calls to our elected officials make an impact, even if they don't always do what we ask, since they're ultimately concerned about "reelection, reelection, reelection".

Especially with help from our friends, it's not difficult to write letters calling for specific actions and telling powerful stories. We can share talking points, drafts, and letters we've sent, as well as problems we encounter and replies we get.

(The title refers to the U.S. system, but you're welcome to share how you're communicating with your elected officials in any country.)

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I urge you to oppose Trump’s budget in the strongest terms possible. This war budget is evidence, along with much other evidence, that a fascist takeover looms. This is profoundly disturbing and terrifying. Please read Anis Shivani’s Salon article, “Trump and Mussolini: 11 Key Lessons from Historical Fascism”.

Consider these trends as evidence of emerging US fascism:

1. Trump’s war budget. His most influential advisor, Steve Bannon has publicly claimed we’ll be at war in the South China Sea and the Middle East, urging people to gird for a bloody Christian war against Islam (as well as secularism). Trump reorganized the National Security Council to empower Bannon.

2. Attacks on constitutional rights and on ethics enforcement within government.

3. Sacrifice of common good for corporate profiteering.

4. Deep corruption and almost universal conflicts of interest, such as Trump advisor Carl Icahn getting a radical rules change to the U.S. renewable fuel mandate policy for his immediate profit of over $500 million.

5. Demonization of minorities and an “enemies list” approach.

6. Attacks on free press, and the steady stream of lies such as inventing a “Bowling Green massacre” to justify anti-immigrant policy.

7. “Deconstruction” of the administrative state — Bannon’s stated goal, shown in the appointment of cabinet members poised to gut the departments they’ll head — and signing the “Comprehensive Plan For Reorganizing The Executive Branch”.

I urge you to oppose the Trump budget proposal. The Republican budget plans will kill more Americans per quarter than have died from al Qaeda or ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in the last 20 years. We need a federal budget that is not rigged for billionaires and big corporations.

Trump’s massive unnecessary $54 billion defense spending increase only makes sense as gear-up for the Steve Bannon’s religious war. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said a key priority would be “restoring our nuclear capabilities,” meaning more money for nuclear weapons. The new low-yield tactical nuclear “tailored for limited use” weapons, which the Defense Science Board recommended, will not enhance deterrence but undermine it. It sounds like the “more flexible nuclear enterprise” envisioned will be Trump bullying the world with tactical nukes in hand. Such Trump “negotiation” with foreign powers will quickly lead not only to Bannon’s war but also to global Armageddon.

President Ronald Reagan declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Former Defense Secretary William Perry has argued that even a single nuclear detonation would have dire social and political consequences “beyond what people understand.”

Eliminating the Chemical Safety Board, the federal agency that investigates chemical accidents, puts American lives at risk. That watchdog agency is one of the best bargains in Washington, broadly improving safety for only $12 million a year. The 18 other agencies eliminated is also appalling. The budget would also fully privatize the air-traffic control system.

Funding reductions to the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance signals to polluters that they can break pollution laws because no one will be watching. People will get sick because the EPA won't be able to adequately protect public health.

I urge you to oppose Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court. Gorsuch signaled his view that religion can be used to justify real harm to others, including the denial of access to healthcare services. This ominous position undermines true religious freedom. In E-mails, Neil Gorsuch praised Hans von Spakovksy a leading Republican activist behind voter suppression efforts.

I urge you to oppose S. 370, which would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Oppose as well any Trump executive action to attack the CFPB.

I urge you to oppose the Trump budget proposal. The Republican budget plans will kill more Americans per quarter than have died from al Qaeda or ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in the last 20 years. We need a federal budget that is not rigged for billionaires and big corporations.

Trump’s massive unnecessary $54 billion defense spending increase only makes sense as gear-up for the Steve Bannon’s religious war. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said a key priority would be “restoring our nuclear capabilities,” meaning more money for nuclear weapons. The new low-yield tactical nuclear “tailored for limited use” weapons, which the Defense Science Board recommended, will not enhance deterrence but undermine it. It sounds like the “more flexible nuclear enterprise” envisioned will be Trump bullying the world with tactical nukes in hand. Such Trump “negotiation” with foreign powers will quickly lead not only to Bannon’s war but also to global Armageddon.

President Ronald Reagan declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Former Defense Secretary William Perry has argued that even a single nuclear detonation would have dire social and political consequences “beyond what people understand.”

Eliminating the Chemical Safety Board, the federal agency that investigates chemical accidents, puts American lives at risk. That watchdog agency is one of the best bargains in Washington, broadly improving safety for only $12 million a year. The 18 other agencies eliminated is also appalling.

Funding reductions to the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance signals to polluters that they can break pollution laws because no one will be watching. People will get sick because the EPA won't be able to adequately protect public health.

I urge you to oppose H.R. 1031, which would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Oppose as well any Trump executive action to attack the CFPB.

To the House: opposingHR 1313, the genetic testingmandate financial bludgeon, misleadingly named the "Preserving Wellness Programs Act" (more about that in Ruth's letter below).

To the Senate: - OpposingS.J.Res. 34 that would allow Republicans to discard essential internet privacy protections by a simple majority vote (again, more in Ruth's letter below), and - opposing the American Health Care Act (repeal of Obamacare). (I took Daily Kos's suggestion and didn't give specifics to my Republican senator. They say quite a few Republicans are against it, for reasons quite possibly different from yours or mine.)

(Interesting how Republicans' bills tend to have the most Orwellian names!)

I urge you to cosponsor and support HR 179, the Miners Protection Act. Coal miners worked in terrible conditions and many sacrificed their health as a result of their work. They took lower wages to secure a healthy retirement. Now congress must act to make the funds available. The plan put forward in the bill does not require taxpayer dollars.

I urge you to oppose the Preserving Wellness Programs Act. If enacted, the legislation would mean that employees who refuse to submit to a genetic test as part of their office’s voluntary wellness program could lose out on up to a 30 percent reduction in health insurance costs. That could add up to $5,433 more a year in premiums. A broad coalition of consumer health and medical advocacy groups fear the changes the bill would enact would also undermine basic privacy provisions of GINA and the ADA in the process. A broad group of privacy advocates warn that this could create a 'Gattaca'-like precedent.

I urge you to oppose H.J. Res 86, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, which would expand the Congressional Review Act to strip away privacy protections established in October by the Federal Communications Commission with broad bipartisan support. It would allow lawmakers to repeal Obama-era privacy rules by a simple majority vote in the House and Senate and would prevent the FCC from establishing similar regulations in the future. H.J. Res 86 would strip away rules that prohibit internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from collecting and selling virtually any subscriber data, including browser history and app usage, without prior user permission.

I urge you to oppose H.R. 1259, H.R. 1364 and H.R. 1461, which are a blatant attempt to undermine the ability of federal employees to do their jobs effectively to best serve veterans and other taxpayers. They would

• Remove protections and gut the pensions of workers who are wrongfully fired, harassed or intimidated by managers;

• Give Veterans Affairs officials the power to take back compensation employees have earned;

• Make it more difficult for employees to work with managers to address issues on the job;

• Let management at the VA have the upper hand by radically shortening the time unfairly fired VA workers have to prepare their cases; and limits the time unfairly fired workers can appeal to just seven days

Letter to Senate for today, (excepting that I missed the post office deadline because my car wasn't properly dug out).

I urge you to reject Scott Gottlieb to be the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner. He is entangled in an unprecedented web of Big Pharma ties, and spent most of his career dedicated to promoting the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Gottlieb has advocated dangerous deregulatory approaches to the review process for new medications. In exchange for getting medications to the market faster, Gottlieb is willing to accept a greater degree of uncertainty about safety and effectiveness at the time of approval. He also has favored looser restrictions on off-label promotion. Gottlieb’s appointment would accelerate a decades-long trend in which agency leadership too often makes decisions that are aligned more with the interests of industry than those of patients. If Gottlieb is confirmed, he would be the most interest-conflicted commissioner in American history, by far.

I urge you to oppose S.J. Res 34, which would expand the Congressional Review Act to strip away privacy protections established in October by the Federal Communications Commission with broad bipartisan support. It would allow lawmakers to repeal Obama-era privacy rules by a simple majority vote in the House and Senate and would prevent the FCC from establishing similar regulations in the future. S.J. Res 34 would strip away rules that prohibit internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from collecting and selling virtually any subscriber data without prior user permission.

I urge you to work creatively with other Senators to address the increasing control over national security by men never confirmed by the Senate.The Founding Fathers intended Senators to guide national policy, not extremist civilian outsiders with a religious war agenda.

Steve Bannon remains on the NSC’s Principals Committee, while the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is only a part-time participant. Less than a month after much-admired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster became national security adviser, Steve Bannon appears to be more in control of U.S. foreign policy than ever. A lightly credentialed acolyte of Bannon, deputy national security adviser Sebastian Gorka, seems to have more influence with Trump than McMaster, a decorated lieutenant general.

Their Strategic Initiatives Group appears to operate inside the White House as an Alt-National Security Council, promoting Bannon’s support for an anti-E.U. nationalist Christian right Europe, as a prelude to escalating a “clash of civilizations" war against Islam. Through their Academic spokesperson Joshua Mitchell, the SIG clearly signals that Europeans who favor economic integration, ethnic pluralism and military deterrence of Russia are no longer regarded as U.S. allies.

Thomas, Daily Kos. They will notify you of upcoming votes and provide you with the phone numbers and the addresses of who you need to contact. They also provide sample scripts and letters. I find them very helpful.